Xuande

Chapter 822 Fazheng's Circle of Friends
According to this rule, no money is charged for ships entering the port, but half of the entry tax is required to be paid for the goods that are brought ashore.

After the landing is completed, they can enter the city or other settlements to live, but the trade activities must be carried out in the area designated by the government, and then one part of the turnover will be handed over to the government, which is called profit tax.

That is to say, no matter what rules there were in the past, they are all invalidated. These businessmen no longer need to pay officials any personal favors. What he needs to do now is to pay two taxes in a fair manner.

Half of the entry tax was paid when the goods entered the border of the Han Empire, and [-]% of the profit tax was paid after the goods were sold.

In addition to these two taxes, their treatment and other tax requirements are the same as the local people. They may need to pay a poll tax needed for daily life, and nothing else.

Officials are strictly prohibited from extorting bribes from these foreign maritime merchants. Fazheng, as the prefect, and Ma Chao, as the captain of the county and state soldiers, have the responsibility to guide and supervise these matters.

They need to strictly implement the payment of taxes and fees and the elimination of private bribery, and strive to build Rinan County into the largest commercial and trade county in the South China Sea, and welcome visitors from all over the world to do business.

It takes a lot of time to revitalize the place with agriculture, but if you choose commercial blessing, with the help of business, the process of revitalizing the place will be accelerated.

Using Rinan County as a springboard, Liu Bei can relatively easily complete many tasks that would otherwise require a lot of effort, so those foreign businessmen who are not coming to Rinan County for the first time feel a little surprised.

Compared with before, Rinan County seems to be a bit different.

Once upon a time, Rinan County was also their paradise. As long as they gave officials a little money, they could get the right to do business, sell some goods here, and then buy some goods back and sell them to their hometown. Earn a very lucrative spread.

But since three or four years ago, the officials here have become more and more greedy, and the commissions for goods have reached a heinous level, not to mention the rebellion in Xianglin County more than two years ago, which broke the bottom line of safety for many businessmen. They were forced to bypass Rinan County and go to Hepu County and Nanhai County to seek safer landing sites and more favorable landing policies.

It's a pity that corrupt officials can be found everywhere, and the extra section of the road on the water is not peaceful, and the extra cost of navigation is indeed quite uncomfortable.

But some time ago, some wise sea merchants heard that the old empire was at war, and it seemed that they had launched a severe attack on the rebels in Nichinan County. The rebels in Nichinan County were retreating steadily. People come to inquire about news.

After this inquiry, they knew that Rinan County had really won a military victory, and the rebels who launched the rebellion were wiped out by the government army.

Safe.

The sea merchants were very happy, and immediately organized a trade team, the target, Rinan County.

Although corrupt officials are fierce, corrupt officials are not a specialty of Nichinan County. They run everywhere in the world, including the hometowns of these sea merchants.

Of course, they also hope that through this war and the decline of Nichinan County, those corrupt officials can reflect a little bit and charge less money.

Then they learned that their dream seemed to come true.

Nichinan County promulgated a new policy, strictly prohibiting officials from extorting bribes from maritime merchants. At the same time, Nichinan County has also formulated the types of taxes that maritime merchants need to pay for normal trade operations.

Entry tax, profit tax, and poll tax.

In addition to these three taxes, they do not need to pay more taxes to the government, and the government will not ask them for additional money. If there is no law, they will definitely be punished.

Really don't want money?
I have never seen any big scenes of maritime merchants who are used to corrupt officials extorting bribes, but I have never seen this kind of people who made it clear that they would not accept black money.

Putting unspoken rules on the table is a very interesting move. Although money is still charged, at least there is a limit to the amount collected, and there are rules. There will be no random collection or extortion, and there are certain guarantees. This makes many businessmen Willing to pay for peace of mind.

After these foreign merchants entered Rinan County, they sold goods in designated areas. Fazheng arranged for some staff to stay in their trading places, and he himself wandered around from time to time.

Unlike the relatively strong productive forces of the Han Empire, most of the foreign goods he saw here were raw agricultural products, or primary processed products after simple processing.

Such as pearls, incense, ivory, rhino horn, coral, tortoise shell, etc., as well as some animals, some parrots, peacocks, etc. with gorgeous coat colors, and there are also handicrafts such as jade and glass.

Fazheng took a look at these foreign goods, and found some merits.

Compared with these luxury goods, Fazheng felt that the things produced by the Han Empire itself were the most important.

For example, high-quality ironware and high-quality table salt brought great help to the people of the Han Empire.

And if you really want to talk about luxury goods, can luxury goods in the world be more expensive than Shu brocade and Jiuquan wine?
That is comparable to the existence of gold.

Fazheng is not a person who likes luxury goods. Those foreign businessmen gave him a lot of gifts, but he didn’t take them all. He picked a piece of jade and put it in his hand to play with as an ornament and a toy. Occasionally, he looked at the emerald green The color is quite pleasing to the eye.

He didn't accept the others, and worried that someone would gossip if he charged too much.

Compared with these gifts, he was more interested in where these merchants themselves came from. When he went to inspect the trading places, he often chatted with those strange-looking merchants and talked about things about their home country.

Many of these businessmen can speak a little simple Chinese, but with a heavy accent, they need the help of a local translator. The local translator often communicates with these businessmen.

Afterwards, Fazheng learned about a series of foreign countries.

For example, Duyuan State, Lu Mei State, Fugandu Lu State, Huang Zhi State, and Chengbu State, etc. According to them, these countries are located either in the south of Rinan County or in the west of Rinan County. Come by sea, there is no land access.

Fazheng curiously asked about the basic situation of their country, and what these people said was similar.

Humid and hot climate, relatively abundant products, relatively poor life, ferocious corrupt officials, frequent wars, some matters related to religious sacrifices, and some strange taboos, all these make the law Just feeling a little curious, curious that there are many other countries in this world, people living a completely different life from the Han Empire.

Fazheng asked them how big their country was, how many troops they had, what victories they had fought, and whether the emperor was wise and powerful, and so on.

These businessmen were obviously more cautious when talking about these issues, and their answers were more ambiguous. They were obviously not willing to talk about their own political issues. This made Fazheng realize that the ruling strength of these countries does not seem to be weak. Businessmen are reluctant to discuss in depth.

Let’s not talk about politics, let’s talk about economics. According to Fazheng’s preliminary understanding, these merchants came to trade with some rare items and rare animals. In addition to selling things to make money, they also need to buy some things. Specialties that will only be provided.

For example, the Nanzhu produced in this sea area is what these businessmen like, and some specialties of the Han Empire, such as porcelain, lacquerware and simple silk fabrics, are also their favorite specialties.

The productivity in the Jiaozhou area is relatively low, and the lacquerware, porcelain, silk fabrics, etc. produced are relatively inferior in Fazheng's view, and they cannot be compared with similar products in the Central Plains area, nor can they be compared with those brought by his own house. In comparison, even so, these things seem to be very popular with these merchants.

Fazheng smelled a business opportunity from it.

Rinan County, including the entire Jiaozhou, is relatively poor and short of money. If it wants to develop and develop in the future, it will need a lot of capital investment. He didn't want to do this, he wanted to show Liu Bei his ability and lay the foundation for further promotion in the future.

However, self-hematopoiesis is a very difficult thing, and the necessary investment in the early stage cannot be overcome.

Therefore, a different approach is needed.

If these guys like lacquerware, porcelain and silk fabrics and other specialties of the Han Empire so much, why not give them more of these products, let them buy more, and use them to earn a lot of money to subsidize government expenses?
Wouldn't this be able to share the worries of the court and Liu Bei?

This time going south, Fazheng took the sea route instead of the land route. On the one hand, the land route is difficult and dangerous, and on the other hand, the sea route can also be directly reached, and the road is smooth.

Fazheng did some calculations, based on the speed of the sea ship and the amount of materials it carried, it would take time and the amount of materials to travel from Qingxu to Rinan County by sea, and from Yuzhou to Rinan County by land. Not an order of magnitude at all.

Although the Jiangnan Military Region is currently working on a military water network plan, when this plan is successful, it is estimated that Guan Yu will also be able to use the water network to connect Jingzhou, Yangzhou, and Jiaozhou together, and it may be more convenient to act at that time.

But in any case, it is not as convenient as the mature sea routes that can be used now.

Fa Zheng started to think about it.

If I can ship the lacquerware, porcelain and silk products with higher craftsmanship sold in the Central Plains from the land of Qingxu to Ninan County for sale to these foreign merchants, will it be possible to encourage them to spend more and buy more? More items, so that the government can earn more operating funds?

If we go a step further, can we sell top-level luxury goods like Shu Brocade to them at a higher price, so that they can spend more gold coins?

With such an idea in mind, Fazheng asked some senior local officials about the status of trade.

According to his narration, there used to be some people who worked hard to transport some luxury goods from the Central Plains to sell to these foreign businessmen. Such things also happened in Hepu County and Nanhai County, and there were more in Rinan County before, but with the Since the large-scale war broke out in the Central Plains more than ten years ago, it has been very rare.

The war in the Central Plains, the stagnation of production, the shortage of materials, and the interruption of roads have given Jiaozhou local space for the sale of low-quality handicrafts with insufficient technology, which is a surprise to them.

But if there are good ones, they are definitely willing to buy them. These foreign merchants are definitely not ignorant of goods, but they just don’t have the channels to buy them. If there are channels to buy them, they will definitely be willing to spend money to buy them. No one doubts this.

Fazheng had an idea.

Not only to buy from the Central Plains, but if possible, he hopes to transfer the production line of these handicrafts to Rinan County, produce locally, and sell them locally. If it is successful, he will definitely give it to Rinan County Open a big sales window and earn more development funds. At that time, Liu Bei will definitely praise himself.

With such ambition, Fazheng decided to take action, sending people back to Qingxu Land by boat, and asked his friends for help.

At this time, the importance of official connections is actually reflected.

And Fazheng just has the official connections needed to accomplish this.

Fazheng was a well-known genius in the Liangzhou State School, and he was also an important disciple who was highly regarded by Liu Bei, so there were quite a lot of people who were willing to make friends with him at that time. Everyone was optimistic about his future and was willing to make friends with him.

And he also thinks of a hero with three gangs, many friends and multiple paths, so he has given many people useful help in exams and homework, and helped many people improve their learning levels, so the relationship with many people is very good. Get along well.

We are classmates and friends. In the past, we were just bragging and farting together, drinking and eating meat, and living recklessly, but now, everyone has entered the officialdom. Compared with those strangers, classmates and friends must be more trustworthy and helpful.

Everyone holds some power more or less. If you encounter some difficulties, it is reasonable to help each other within the scope of help. It is not surprising at all.

There were quite a lot of students from Fazheng's Liangzhou State School. There were at least 80 to 200 students who had a good relationship with him, and more than [-] students who could be named. After graduation, most of them came from Representatives of collective farms started and took the most common path of grassroots promotion.

Fazheng is the one who has made the fastest progress. Although he is the sheriff of Rinan County, he is also the sheriff, the kind that most people are not afraid of.

As for his classmates, except for a few who are really not very capable and are still working as representatives of collective farms, most of them have already become county officials, and some outstanding ones have also achieved the position of county magistrate. Some people have even served as county magistrates twice and are accumulating seniority.

According to Fazheng's understanding, in the land of Qingxu, he has eight classmates who are working as county magistrates and county magistrates, and more than 20 classmates are working as officials in various county governments, each with its own development.

More importantly, Meng Da, an old friend with whom he has always had a very good relationship, was the magistrate of Langya County in Langya County.

Now he feels that if he has this need, he can contact his old classmates and friends, discuss with them about cooperation, engage in commercial trade and so on, and take money out of the pockets of these foreign businessmen to subsidize the place. development of.

If the county they work in can’t find these good things, then go to other places to ask, inquire, see whose friends have resources in this area, get in touch, help each other, share the benefits together, and receive the credit together .

In this way, it does not live up to everyone's long-term expectations of working hard and studying, doesn't it?

In the end, we are all classmates, and we will help each other when things happen, and don't forget the old friendship. In this way, the speed of progress may be faster?

(End of this chapter)